Gadgets Blog: Unusual Gift Ideas

Gadgets for better festival survival

Summer is rapidly approaching, and that means it’s time, for me at least, to start thinking about spending a few weekends in various fields at the festivals. Now I realise that camping in a field for three days with shared chemical toilets, showers, and the threat of torrential rain at any given moment might not appeal, but thankfully there are many gadgets available to make your stay much more palatable. I will deal first with the basics, the items I would consider survival ‘essentials’ for a festival.

My first rule is to try and travel as light as possible at these events, humping huge and heavy loads of kit to and from the car is not fun. As far as stuff goes I take a tent (One man), sleeping bag, rollmat, rucksack with changes of clothes in, and a camping chair. Food and drink is normally transported on a second journey.

Tents come in a large range from those like mine that consist of a bit of canvas two poles and some pegs, to those that are basically like a three bedroom semi detached house that require planning permission before erecting. Don’t take a tent that’s any bigger or complex than you need, and if putting tents up isn’t your forte there are a range of quick pitch tents to make life easier for you, and they are generally also a lot easier and quicker to get packed up as well! (as demonstrated in the video below) It is debateable as to just how effective these would be in adverse weather, but in a field in Britain in the height of summer, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Sleeping bags, in my opinion, are fairly much of a muchness, so unless you really suffer from the cold, for the purposes of a summer festival your basic budget job should be fine. A roll mat, as well as making the ground slightly more comfortable, will also help keep you a little warmer by keeping you off the ground. If you have a larger budget however you may prefer something a bit more novel such as the SELK’BAG, a sleeping bag you wear.

Camping chairs can be picked up for about £5 and as well as giving you somewhere comfy to sit, most also incorporate a drink holder. Should you want even more there is a Rocking Camping Chair, or the really lazy could try the Lazy Days Hammock.

These are what I would consider the more ‘essential’ items, and I’ll have a look at some of the more ‘optional’ gadgets out there shortly.